It's on You
How Corporations and Behavioral Scientists Have Convinced Us That We're to Blame for Society's Deepest Problems
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- USD 19.99
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- USD 19.99
Descripción editorial
Two leading behavioral scientists argue we should reject “nudge” policies and stop blaming personal failure for society’s failures
"Excellent. A master class on how to blend individual psychology with institutions, so that people are encouraged to get involved and develop solutions to our urgent problems via the democratic process." —Daron Acemoglu, Nobel Laureate and author of Power and Progress
Two decades ago, behavioral economics burst from academia to the halls of power, on both sides of the Atlantic, with the promise that correcting individual biases could help transform society. The hope was that governments could deploy a new approach to addressing society’s deepest challenges, from inadequate retirement planning to climate change—gently, but cleverly, nudging people to make choices for their own good and the good of the planet.
It was all very convenient, and false. As behavioral scientists Nick Chater and George Loewenstein show in It’s on You, nudges rarely work, and divert us from policies that do. For example, being nudged to switch to green energy doesn’t cut carbon, and it distracts from the real challenge of building a low-carbon economy.
It’s on You shows how the rich and powerful have repeatedly used a clever sleight of hand: blaming individuals for social problems, with behavioral economics an unwitting accomplice, while lobbying against the systemic changes that could actually help. Rather than trying to “fix” the victims of bad policies, real progress requires rewriting the social and economic rulebook for the common good.
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In this sharp takedown, psychologist Chater and behavioral economist Loewenstein (Exotic Preferences) argue that "nudge" theory, the notion of personal decision-making as the route to solving society's problems, began as a ruse to divert attention from corporate culpability. They cite the famous 1971 "crying Indian" ad, which claimed "People start pollution. People can stop it," and was paid for by corporations accused of causing pollution. Such notions of individualized responsibility quickly spread to business and economics schools, then to psychology and behavioral studies departments—who "sleepwalked into the enemy's ranks"—and finally into public policy. The authors themselves spent portions of their own careers implementing public policy nudges that failed; the impetus for their book was to examine nudge policies that had succeeded. Instead, they were astonished to uncover a string of failures (as well as repeated evidence of corporate influence, like "a trail of fingerprints at a crime scene"). Not only does an emphasis on personal behavior routinely fail to solve what it's meant to solve—the oil industry's promotion of the "carbon footprint" being the most obvious example—but, shockingly, even nudge theory's most touted success stories, like marking everyone an automatic "yes" for organ donation or 401(k) savings, have not been effective: neither policy has been shown to result in increased donations or savings. It's a stunning emperor-has-no-clothes indictment.
